Cleaning out the Lafayette FB notebook

When Frank
Tavani first learned last Thursday night that Jonathan Zweizig, the father of
Lafayette quarterback Zach Zweizig, had suffered a stroke, Tavani’s mind
flashed back to the first week of February in 2002.

“We had a
visitation weekend that Saturday and Sunday (Feb. 2-3) and national signing day
was on Wednesday (Feb. 6),” Tavani told me on Sunday. “My dad was going in for
surgery on Monday, and I talked with him on Sunday. He told me not to drive
down before the surgery, because it was a full day, and he said I could just
come after the surgery. I got there in
time to get to the recovery room on Monday, and we had two phones going in the
waiting room, trying to get verbal commits. A guy came in and told me my dad
didn’t survive the surgery.”

“Those
things hang with you for a lifetime. That I didn’t go … you get tunnel vision
sometimes and you don’t know what’s going on with other things.”

Tavani
said he shared that emotional Tavani family anecdote with Zweizig to stress the importance of family commitment, “and I told
him if he needed to go be with his father on Friday, we understood that; that
comes first. Sometimes you don’t give those things a thought, My dad didn’t
survive it.”

Zweizig
and his family, including his sister Hannah, “chose to stay here and go through
the game and wait it out,” Tavani said. Zweizig got his fourth career start at
Fordham and played most of the game. A car was ready to take him right to
his Wyomissing home after the game, but he wanted to return to Easton on the
team bus. And when he got back to the college, he learned that his dad could
not have any visitors and was not doing well in the intensive care unit of the
hospital.

Zweizig
had a religion class responsibility for Sunday morning, and he went through
with that, after which he left for the hospital. “His father is in intensive
care and needs some surgery and the family is making some decisions; that’s the
best I can tell you,” Tavani said.

It was
incredible that Zweizig could keep his mind on the game at all, but he was
13-for-18 for 219 yards and a touchdown in the first half as the Leopards took
a 20-17 lead. In the second half, however, he was intercepted three times and
he also absorbed a crunching late hit from Fordham’s John LaSure. He was on the
turf a long time before he finally got up and walked off under his own power.

Andrew
Shoop, who did not practice all week because of a foot-ankle injury, came onto
the field, but after only two plays, Zweizig returned to the game.

Tavani said
LaSure had driven his helmet “square into (Zweizig’s) chest, which affected his
non-throwing shoulder” and called it “a flagrant situation”, even though LaSure
was hit with a roughing the passer penalty but not ejected from the game. “I
thought it was extremely late, but they get penalized 15 yards and our
quarterback goes down.”

Tavani was
ready to go with Shoop the rest of the way, but all of a sudden Zweizig came up
to him and said, “Coach, I’m ready to go,” Tavani told me. “He actually started
to go out, but it was too late and he had to come off,” Tavani added. “Then he
went back in. He is one tough customer.”

Zweizig
finished one series, getting sacked on one play, and on Lafayette’s next
series, the 6-5 sophomore from Wilson West Lawn High School threw a bad
interception on first down. It was his final play of the day.

Zweizig
took a portable stem unit with him to treat his shoulder until he can return to
the training room, but Tavani said that on Saturday night, Zweizig told him, “Coach,
I’ll be ready to go.”

Mike Duncan,
a sophomore wide receiver who caught five passes for 124 yards – two 49-yard
plays set up Lafayette touchdowns – paid tribute to Zweizig during the postgame
press conference. “I’d like to say something about Zach,” Duncan said. “I have
a lot of respect for him. He plays through so much pain. I could see in the
huddle that he was struggling. He takes those hits and gets up and plays
through it and I just respect him so much.”

INJURY UPDATE – Coach Tavani said the trainer’s room was
not extremely busy on Sunday morning. However, he said starting tailback Ross Scheuerman would have to be listed
as “questionable” for the season finale against Lehigh. Scheuerman, who rushed
for 54 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries and also returned two kickoffs for
37 yards, suffered a hip pointer for the second straight week. “It was at the
same point” as the other one, “which magnifies it,” Tavani said. “At this
point, that’s what the trainers are telling me.” Scheuerman is the leading
rusher for the Leopards with 636 yards and five touchdowns. He rushed for 51
yards against Lehigh last year. Tavani said of quarterback Andrew Shoop, “I expect him to be prepared to play, too.” Shoop’s
injured ankle was twisted againi when he was sacked in the end zone at the end
of Saturday’s game. The injury, which
Tavani said is a deep bone bruise, kept Shoop out of practice last week,
although he did take part in a walkthrough on Friday night. When Zweizig left
the game for good, Shoop came on a drove Lafayette 75 yards on 10 plays, the
last one an eight-yard touchdown pass to freshman Jamel Smith. Shoop was 6-for-9 for 84 yards in his short time on
the field. Linebacker Colton Kirkpatrick
left the game Saturday, too, and Tavani said the sophomore was being treated
for neck spasms on Sunday but “looked pretty good.”

THE SUSPENSION STORY EPILOGUE – I wondered who Tavani expected to
step up during this final week of practice and regroup the troops, who were
shaken again last weekend when four players were disciplined for missing curfew
on Friday night. Three of the four were seniors, and that is really disturbing.
“Normally, the entire senior group takes charge of that,” Tavani said. “I met
with the two captains [Rick Lyster and Darius Safford] this morning and they
expressed very much how they felt the same as me. They don’t understand it.
They are discouraged and disgusted with it, but they can only do what they can
do. Some people decide other things matter more. Responsibility and
accountability have to matter more than that. That’s the bottom line with me.”
Tavani then asked a rhetorical question: “Can we go this week without having
any incidents?” He added, “We (the coaching staff) talked about how many days
can we go without having some distraction or other issue.” That is a great
question that only the kids in the locker room at the Bourger Varsity Football
House can answer for themselves. “The saving grace is it’s only a minority (of
players) involved in terms of numbers, but probably most disappointing is the
number of seniors.”

TAVANI: GIVE LEHIGH A BID – “This week we have to play our best
game because Lehigh is very good and none too happy coming off that loss to
Colgate. They’ll want to bounce back in a big way and they’ve got some concern,
although I think regardless of what happens, they deserve an at-large bid and
I’m sure they want to ensure that by going 10-0 instead of 9-2. We are trying
to preserve a winning season and get a win over our arch-rival, so both teams
have something that means a lot and will play a hard-fought game.” I said that
is Lafayette wins Saturday, Lehigh’s chance for an FCS bid might go with it –
just as Lafayette’s possible at-large bid did in 2009 when the Leopards lost in
overtime to the Brown and White. “You might not believe it, but I hope that’s
not the case,” Tavani said. “I’m all about our league. They’ve had a tremendous
year, and to be at this point is difficult to do. Say what you want about close
games. A win is a win and losses are losses. It’s not about by how much or how
little, but how many. They’re a 9-1 team and deserve all the accolades they
have achieved. Like us, it’s a rivalry game that means a lot regardless. (The
committee) should factor that in, win or lose. Regardless of what happens I
hope to see two teams represent our league and I know both of them will represent
it well.”

THE OFFENSE: 991 YARDS IN TWO GAMES – The Leopards backed up their 542-yard
Colgate game with a 449-yard offensive effort against Fordham. “We feel good
about that,” Tavani said. “We’re starting to play better and make plays. It’s a
credit to our offensive staff. They work well together and have a good plan and
scheme week in and week out and we try to utilize the talent we have, spread
ball around and make plays. We didn’t start a senior the last two weeks on
offense. We’re a young team out there and we’re not that old on the other side,
either.” Among the highlights on offense for me on Saturday was a five-yard
touchdown run by Scheuerman on which there was a huge hole. Tavani said that
was thanks to fullback Pat Creahan.
Another Leopard missed a block, “and (Creahan) came by and creamed the guy to
open big hole,” Tavani said. I also liked
a quarterback sneak by Zweizig for a first down on a fourth-and-one in the
fourth quarter. “We got good push and a guy 6-4 with good leg strength,” Tavani
said. “One step and that 6-4 body is laying beyond the marker.” Then, too,
there was the game-opening flea-flicker pass from Zweizig to Mike Duncan for 49 yards. “The downside
was we don’t get the touchdown, but we connected,” Tavani said. He meant that
the one play did not produce the score. “Coaches always want a little more,” he
said.

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